Sachin Tendulkar a cricketing marvel

Indian Sachin Tendulkar is a marvel when it comes to batting. In the just concluded Two Test series against Australia he rewrote the records with some stupendous feats which helped his team wrap up the series 2-nil.

From the moment he arrived in the big time, he has just blazed away using his bat like a magic wand to knock bowlers all over the field and over it with pardonable arrogance that has left connoisseurs watching in amazement his bewitching charm.

In the First Test he was unfortunate to be dismissed two short of what would have been his 49th Test three figure score. Then in the Second Test he took revenge and pulverized the Aussie bowling to make 214 which was his sixth double hundred knock in Test cricket. In July he made a double hundred against Sri Lanka at the SSC ground.

Simple and likeable

Simple and likeable Tendulkar is a scourge of bowlers. When he walks out to bat there is determination in every step up to the wicket. And once he takes guard its text book concentration personified. He begins to first study the pace. Then the bounce on the wicket and movement if any. And then he lets loose an avalanche of runs.

He always presents the full face of the bat, which is the hallmark of great batsmen. He hardly resorts to offering a horizontal bat. Playing straight has been his secret to the tremendous success that he has achieved in all forms of the game.

He has the entire repertoire of strokes that is found in the book. The drive on either side of the wicket, the square and the late cut, the glance, the hook, the pull, the sweep and above all has a water tight defence. No wonder then that big runs come naturally to him.

Chappel’s poor thinking

At one time as it happens to all great batsmen , Tendulkar had a surprisingly poor run with the bat. Ian Chappell that brash former Australian skipper and now TV commentator and journalist in a moment of poor thinking wanted the great man to retire before some one else does it for him.

Stung to the quick, from that moment and before the ink in the statement made by Chappel could dry, Tendulkar kept making runs and avalanches at that. And that would have made the former Aussie skipper wish the earth would open up and swallow him. It taught the Aussie that discretion was the better part of valour!

To confound all critics the ebullient Tendulkar now has a mountain of centuries and double centuries to show in Test cricket as well as the limited over bash.

Established game

In the established game he has 48 centuries and 46 in the limited over version of the game and hugging the record of being the first batsman to blast a double hundred in 50 over cricket. Isn’t it amazing Mr.Ian Chappell?

Now in the twilight of his illustrious career, he is 37 now, but his hunger for runs still lingers on nor has his thirst for runs quenched. If his form in the Tests against the Aussies is an indication, then bowlers would get bashed and fielders would like athletes be on their blocks for a few more years.

The greatest batsman that the world of cricket had seen, the late Sir Donald Bradman compared himself with Tendulkar. He said that Tendulkar has his traits and the strokes that cascade from the little man’s bat being similar to his. That was the finest tribute that anyone could pay to the young Tendulkar.

Ashes clashes

As for the Aussies, the sooner they get the calamity that was the Two Tests against India out of their system before the all important Ashes clashes with England the better.

Generally when a team batting first scores over 400 runs in a Test, it often goes without saying that the side is bound to win the Test. But that does not seem to happen with the present set of Aussies led by Ricky Ponting.

The obvious reason for that is that the kangaroos lack the bowlers to skittle the opponents. Other than for their pace brigade Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenaus and Douglas Bollinger, the spin cupboard is skeletal.

Nathan Hauritz the off spinner, sad to say, is nowhere in the class of their former spinners such as Ashley Mallet, Bruce Yardley or Tim May. Hauritz seems to be just turning his arm over and lacks vicious spin or bite.

No good offies

Obviously there does not seem to be any good off spinners in the Australian cricketing circuit. So the Aussie selectors with no options have to spin in Hauritz in the team. Hauritz is lucky to sport the Aussie colours.

If the Aussies think that Hauritz is an off spinner in the true sense of the word, then Sri Lanka’s top off spinners of past such as Abu Fuard, Cyril Ernest, Lalith Kaluperuma and Mahinda Athulathmudali would be permanent fixtures in the Aussie squad.

When Richie Benaud’s team played here on their way to England for the Ashes, off spinner Abu Fuard had the Aussie batsmen in a flat spin in the whistle stop match they played at the Oval.

Benaud asks for Fuard

Fuard tormented the Aussie batsmen and impressed Benaud so much who at the end of the game said he would love to have Fuard with him in England. That was the esteem that Fuard was held in by visiting teams.

Apropos my article last week titled - Billy Bowden boob spoils Aussie- India Test- where I referred to Bowden not giving Indian Ojha out LBW which would have won the Test for Australia, Bowden in a note to his friend Leo Wijesinghe, Cricket Co-ordinator, NCC while refereeing to that decision states thus.

What a Test match it was here in Mohali. I enjoyed the challenge and was happy with my game. By the way, before you mention the LBW right at the end of Johnson’s over, Ojha got a small inside edge hitting his pad hence my giving runs.

But to everyone watching the action it was otherwise. So it will be seen like I said ‘it was probably a mistake by the experienced Bowden at the heat of the moment’ Bowden too is human and we are sure the Aussies would have taken the decision in the spirit it was made. No wonder then that it is said that umpiring is a thankless job.